Apr. 27—In response to concerns raised by Republican state lawmakers about the financial impact a habitat conservation plan could have on some counties, Gov. Tina Kotek encouraged the leaders to see the process through.
Several rural and coastal legislators, including state Rep. Cyrus Javadi and state Sen. Suzanne Weber, Republicans who represent the North Coast, signed a letter to the governor in March urging Kotek and the state Department of Forestry to pursue an alternate plan that allows for more logging in state forests.
The 70-year habitat conservation plan, which has been several years in the making, would designate protected habitat areas across nearly 640,000 acres of state forests, mostly in Clatsop and Tillamook counties.
The plan would outline no-logging areas to protect species and keep the state in compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act.
Over the past several months, opposition to the plan from the timber industry and county leaders has ramped up. They have argued that the draft plan goes further than it needs to protect habitat at the expense of local communities that depend on revenue generated by logging state forests.
While there is still work to be done before completion of the plan later this year, recent timber harvest projections released by the state for the next two years suggest revenue reductions could be as dramatic as some feared.
Staff is expected to present timber harvest projections for the 70-year life of the plan to the Board of Forestry by this summer.
"While there may not be agreement around the final decision pending before the Board of Forestry, there are real and substantive concerns needing to be addressed with clarity by the agency as part of the ongoing process leading up to action by the board," Kotek, a Democrat, said in a letter to the Republican legislators earlier this month. "Fortunately, there is time for this work to be done given the September timeline for the anticipated decision by the board on whether to proceed with the (habitat conservation plan) as currently designed or direct the agency to make changes prior to its finalization."
Revenue from logging in state forests is distributed to counties and other local districts based on timber sales in each jurisdiction's geographical boundary.
The funding model was born out of an arrangement between counties and the state during the Great Depression.
At the time, private timber companies turned logged forests over to the counties to deal with instead of paying taxes on land.
Since the counties did not have the resources to manage the land, they came to an agreement with the state to consolidate the foreclosed lands under public ownership to restore timber production and share the revenue.